Phil Ray
HOLLIDAYSBURG Whether an Altoona teenager will be tried in the fatal shooting of a classmate in the adult or the juvenile court now rests with Blair County President Judge Elizabeth A. Doyle.
Doyle completed a second day of hearings on where Damien Green, 16, will face charges of second-degree murder and robbery in connection with the Feb. 25 fatal shooting of 15-year-old Devon Pfirsching, a 10th grader at Altoona Area High School.
On Dec. 28, Doyle heard from a forensic psychologist, Alice A. Applegate of Pittsburgh, who concluded Green was not a principal participant in the robbery and murder of Pfirsching.
Green
A forensic psychologist from Pittsburgh on Monday recommended that the case of one of the teenage suspects in the February murder of 15-year-old Devon Pfirsching of Altoona be transferred from the adult court to the Blair County Juvenile Court.
Alice A. Applegate, who was an elementary school teacher for eight years before receiving a doctorate in psychology, stated that Damien Green, 16, was amenable to treatment in the juvenile justice system rather than face trial before a jury on charges of second-degree murder and robbery in the adult criminal court.
If the Green case would be transferred to the juvenile court, he could possibly be placed in a juvenile treatment center or the State Correctional Institution at Pine Grove, Indiana County, until his 21st birthday.